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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28151334">what died didn't stay dead</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/katierosefun/pseuds/katierosefun'>katierosefun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Everything Hurts, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, Reunions, Whump</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:02:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>14,641</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28151334</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/katierosefun/pseuds/katierosefun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“No,” Obi-Wan murmured as the figure on the landing platform looked down. “No…it can’t be…” </p><p>Even though his whole body ached, tore as he moved, Obi-Wan managed to prop himself up on an elbow. The world spun around him as he fixed his gaze upwards. The dark figure was descending, he realized. Falling down…</p><p>And then there was the dull thud of boots against metal, and Obi-Wan heard heavy, hollow breathing. </p><p>[or: Obi-Wan leaves Tatooine exactly once. He discovers things along the way. (Yes, I had to write this after finding out that Vader was making an appearance in the Kenobi series).]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Bail Organa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>222</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>favourite fics from a galaxy far far away</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>what died didn't stay dead</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>first of all, i am sorry for writing a 14.5k word fic, but this was the result of me screaming at <a href="https://pandora15.tumblr.com/">pandora</a> when all the crazy star wars news dropped. i was speculating, and then she was like, 'you have to write this.' so here we are! </p><p>there are *some* references to the 'ahsoka' novel by ek johnston, but...nothing overwhelmingly major! </p><p>enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There were some things that Obi-Wan had thought that he was prepared for. Or, at least, he thought that he simply couldn’t be surprised by anything anymore. (That tendency to be surprised by anything had burned and crumbled a long time ago.)</p><p>But when he saw Bail standing in front of his hut that night, Obi-Wan still had to stop.</p><p>For a moment, he thought that perhaps he must be more dehydrated than he thought. Or more tired than he thought, at the least, because this was probably the first time he had actually started <em>seeing </em>people rather than just hearing them.</p><p>But then Bail turned around, and Obi-Wan realized that if he were truly hallucinating, he probably would have at least hallucinated a Bail Organa looking exactly the same as Obi-Wan remembered him. Not looking a little older, like Obi-Wan himself was now.</p><p>There was more grey in Bail’s hair, for one. Deeper shadows under his eyes, a few more lines. But when Bail smiled, Obi-Wan saw that same flash of the senator that he had known a decade ago—and he realized dully that no, this wasn’t a voice come to life.</p><p>“Well,” Bail said, shifting aside, “are you going to invite this weary traveler in?”</p><p>Obi-Wan swallowed. He was surprised by how much the sensation hurt—maybe he should have had more water, after all—but he nodded. And then, one step, two, three later, he was at the door. He undid the lock as steadily as he could, pushed open the door.</p><p>As soon as the door closed behind them, Bail and Obi-Wan both let out a breath.</p><p>He felt a hand settle on his shoulder a moment later, and Obi-Wan leaned his head back. Looked to the side to see Bail smiling a little at him.</p><p>‘It’s good to see you, my friend,” Bail said.</p><p>“I could say the same,” Obi-Wan replied. His voice came out quieter than he thought it would be. He looked up at Bail. “How did you…”</p><p>“Find you?” Bail asked. He shrugged. “I asked myself where Obi-Wan Kenobi would go if he were trying to keep his head low.” He gestured around the hut. “It was either over here or on the other side of the nearest city. Given how spread apart everything is…” He let out a low laugh. “I’m glad I guessed correctly.”</p><p>Obi-Wan swallowed. He looked at Bail for another moment, pushed himself away from the door. “If anyone saw you or recognized you—”</p><p>“I was careful,” Bail replied. “I kept myself hidden.”</p><p>“Does anyone else know you’re here?” Obi-Wan asked.</p><p>“No one,” Bail replied calmly.</p><p>Obi-Wan turned around to Bail.</p><p>A corner of Bail’s lips twitched. “Don’t tell me you think I’m lying.”</p><p>“No—no,” Obi-Wan said, looking away. He gestured to the small table sitting at the center of the hut. “Please—sit.”</p><p>“What a gracious host,” Bail intoned.</p><p>Obi-Wan shot him another look as he walked across the room for water.</p><p>“There he is,” Bail said. “I knew he was in there somewhere.”</p><p>“Careful,” Obi-Wan replied, setting down the water. He passed Bail a glass. “I am still your gracious host.”</p><p>Bail laughed lightly, wrapping his hand around the glass. Obi-Wan sat down across from him, alternating between looking at Bail and the glass in his hands.</p><p>“How are you?” Bail asked.</p><p>Obi-Wan turned the glass over in his hands. It was cool against his palms. “I’m well,” he replied after some time. He supposed that would be the most neutral way of describing things. “And you?”</p><p>“I’m…well,” Bail replied.</p><p>“And Breha?” Obi-Wan asked.</p><p>“Just as well,” Bail replied. He paused and then added, “She sent a holo of our daughter, if you’d like to see.”</p><p>Obi-Wan waited a moment before nodding. A single nod.</p><p>Bail set a small holoprojector on the table. Turned it on.</p><p>And there, right on the table, Obi-Wan watched the small blue form of a young girl sprint across the holoprojector. She was laughing at something someone had just said. Obi-Wan saw dark hair, braided in the traditional Alderaanian style. Equally dark eyes that were somehow still warm even in the hologram. Familiar eyes.</p><p>“Leia!” a woman’s voice said from off the hologram. Breha Organa. “Leia, do you have anything to say to your father?”</p><p>The girl came to a quick stop, waved with both hands to Obi-Wan and Bail. “Hi, Daddy!” she said cheerfully. “We miss you!”</p><p>With that, the girl pressed both hands to her lips, extended them back to the audience. “Come home soon! Love you!”</p><p>And then she was off, laughing at something that Obi-Wan couldn’t see.  </p><p>The hologram came to a stop, but the image didn’t close.</p><p>Obi-Wan observed the hologram for a little while. And then, looking to Bail, he said quietly, “She’s wonderful.”</p><p>“Yes,” Bail said, smiling. “She’s Breha and my whole world.” He looked at the holoprojector, and then he shut it off. After a moment, he said, “But I think you know that I’m not just here to show you a picture of Leia.”</p><p>“Is she…” Obi-Wan’s throat suddenly went dry. “Did something—”</p><p>“No,” Bail replied. “She’s safe. But others…” He looked at Obi-Wan. “Have you heard anything?”</p><p>“News gets here slowly,” Obi-Wan replied. “Both a blessing and a curse that way.”</p><p>“Yes,” Bail murmured. Then, sliding the holoprojector towards himself, he said, “But surely, you know of the Empire?”</p><p>Of course he had. He had made the mistake of walking into a store and seeing the news play out on the holoprojectors and then tried to keep his hands steady as he had gathered supplies. And then he had decided that he wouldn’t return to the store or to the rest of the town for a little while longer—just until the initial noise died down. (And the noise did die down eventually. Tatooine, which was already used to tyrants and corruption, didn’t seem too surprised. But Obi-Wan knew that elsewhere, worlds away, the noise died down with blaster fire and silenced voices and people vanishing in the night.)</p><p>“Enough,” Obi-Wan replied. He looked at Bail. “But how much do <em>you</em> know of the Empire?”</p><p>Bail’s face hardened. “More than most,” he said. He replaced the holoprojector with a new one: smaller, the kind that Obi-Wan had seen slipped between the hands of spies and bounty hunters alike.</p><p>“Bail—”</p><p>“Just—” Bail’s voice was strained. “I wouldn’t be coming to you if there was no other option.”</p><p>Obi-Wan held Bail’s stare. “And I have a place here,” he said evenly. “You know that.”</p><p>“I know. I <em>know</em>,” Bail said, setting the holoprojector on the table. Obi-Wan looked at it once before fixing his gaze back on Bail. His friend’s gaze had softened. “But I am out of my depths, my friend. And I need your help. Obi-Wan Kenobi could be their only hope.”</p><p>Obi-Wan’s chest tightened. “But I’m not,” he replied quietly. Firmly. “Obi-Wan Kenobi went into exile. He’s gone, like the rest.” He stood up, set his glass down. “There are more—”</p><p>“They found younglings, Obi-Wan.”</p><p>Obi-Wan looked sharply at Bail.</p><p>Bail pressed his lips together. “They’ve been finding children,” he said. “I don’t know how, but if what my intel says is correct, then those children—<em>children</em>, Obi-Wan—”</p><p>Obi-Wan closed his eyes. He saw the younglings again, those sprawled out in the hallways, the training rooms. Blaster burns. Lightsaber burns.</p><p>He opened his eyes.</p><p>“From all over the galaxy,” Bail continued. “Taken out of their homes. Separated from families. Forced to…” He gestured. “Do whatever it is the Empire wants them do.” He stood up, knuckled the table. “And if we can <em>find </em>at least some of them—my source found where most of the younglings are being held. If we take them out, destroy that base—”</p><p>“And then what?” Obi-Wan asked. “If the Empire is—if they’re taking the children <em>now</em>; what makes you think that they’ll stop once you rescue this group?”</p><p>“It’ll take them longer to reconstruct that facility,” Bail replied. “In the meantime, we’ll find out where they’re keeping the others—”</p><p>“Bail.”</p><p>“<em>Obi-Wan</em>,” Bail said, setting both hands on the table. “I am asking you. Just this once.”</p><p>“The risks—” Obi-Wan shook his head. “If the Empire is looking for Jedi, then that is the last place I should be.” He moved past Bail. “I wish you had come for anything else—I am <em>glad</em> to—” His voice caught briefly, and clearing his throat, Obi-Wan turned around. “I am glad to see you again. But this is something I cannot do, no matter how much I wish I could.”</p><p>They stood in silence.</p><p>Then Bail sighed. “I know,” he said.</p><p>“I am glad,” Obi-Wan said after another moment. He looked at Bail. “That there is someone who is…doing this. The galaxy needs more Bail Organas.”</p><p>“The galaxy needs more Obi-Wan Kenobis, too,” Bail replied quietly, but he gave Obi-Wan a small, sad smile.</p><p>“Another time,” Obi-Wan replied, and he smiled back a smile that he knew was weary even for himself.</p><p>“Perhaps,” Bail replied.</p><p>The two looked sadly at each other.</p><p>--</p><p>“And the boy?”</p><p>Obi-Wan looked at the wall. He was on his side, facing away from Bail. Because in the end, they had both agreed that it would be too dangerous for Bail to try to find his way back to where he left his ship in the city. Best to stay the night.</p><p>This also meant sharing the same bed, although Obi-Wan made sure to keep to his side. (“I trust you won’t kick me off,” he told Bail, who had rolled his eyes.)</p><p>“What about him?” Obi-Wan asked the wall.</p><p>“Well,” Bail started. “I know he must be safe, but is he…like his father?”</p><p>“Is Leia?”</p><p>A silence.</p><p>And then, quieter, “At times. Breha and I have been careful so far.”</p><p>Obi-Wan thought of the little girl on the hologram. Her bright face, those warm brown eyes lighting up when addressing her parents. He saw children running through the halls of a home long since burned down.</p><p>“You know I can’t say,” he said after a while.</p><p>Another silence, and then a sigh.</p><p>“I suppose you can’t,” Bail said. Some shifting next to Obi-Wan. “But he’s safe.”</p><p>“Yes,” Obi-Wan replied. He closed his eyes. “And I intend to keep it that way.”</p><p>“I know you do.” Some more shifting beside Obi-Wan, and then a quiet, “Good night.”</p><p>“Good night,” Obi-Wan replied.</p><p>He listened to Bail’s breaths even out eventually. Obi-Wan curled his hand around the edge of the blanket and re-opened his eyes.</p><p>Some shadows flickered.</p><p>How strange, Obi-Wan realized after a moment. To hear someone else’s breath in this room.</p><p>A friend.</p><p>Until tomorrow morning.</p><p>Obi-Wan watched the shadows a little longer. He saw that little girl with her brown eyes, and in the next moment, he saw a little boy with blue eyes. A little boy with a mop of dirty blond hair like his father when he was that age. A little boy who mimicked the sounds of ships and once gave Obi-Wan a gap-toothed smile even after his uncle hastily dragged him away.</p><p>And then there were the other children. A young girl with her hair fanned around her head like a halo. A boy whose green eyes were still open. Hands open, reaching for help that had never come.</p><p>Obi-Wan closed his eyes.</p><p>--</p><p>“Master Kenobi!”</p><p>Obi-Wan opened his eyes.</p><p>Two children were running towards him. A girl with brown eyes, a boy with blue. They stumbled forward, their smiles wide and bright.</p><p>“Hello,” Obi-Wan said, extending his hands. “And what have we here?”</p><p>The children beamed up at Obi-Wan. “We found something,” the boy said. He took Obi-Wan’s hand and tugged him forward. “We need to show you.”</p><p>“Hurry!” the girl insisted, taking Obi-Wan’s other hand.</p><p>“Coming,” Obi-Wan replied, smiling. And he let the children drag him forward, drag him out of the courtyard, and into—</p><p>The warmth at his hands were suddenly gone, and Obi-Wan looked down to find nothing but empty space.</p><p>
  <em>Where did they—</em>
</p><p>Obi-Wan turned around, trying to find those children again—</p><p>He stopped.</p><p>A hallway. He had been led into a hallway.</p><p>A small gasp brought Obi-Wan’s attention down to the ground.</p><p>A different child lay before his feet. A young girl with hair fanned around her head like a halo—and then next to her, a boy whose eyes were fluttering open, closed as he gasped for breath. Hands reaching weakly.</p><p>Obi-Wan stopped. He dropped to his knees, reached for them—</p><p>His hands passed through them.</p><p>Again, he reached.</p><p>Again, his fingers slipped through. A ghost. He had become a mere ghost, and the children’s pitiful gazes turned resentful. Lips turned blue as they gasped their last breaths, eyes burning as Obi-Wan reached again—</p><p>“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m—”</p><p>“You’re not.” A familiar voice. Such a familiar voice.</p><p>When Obi-Wan turned around, he wasn’t in a hallway anymore.</p><p>An ash-dusted shore.</p><p>He was slipping down, and there was someone waiting for him at the bottom.</p><p>Resentful blue-gold-blue-gold eyes met his.</p><p>“You’re <em>not</em>—”</p><p>--</p><p>Obi-Wan woke up with a start.</p><p>He found himself staring at the shadows—the room was still dark as it had been earlier when he had fallen asleep. He rolled over on his side, saw that Bail was turned over to the other wall. Obi-Wan heard him breathe.</p><p>With a quiet sigh, Obi-Wan sat up. He rubbed his hands over his face, tried to calm the pounding in his chest. He glanced over to Bail again, who didn’t so much as stir.</p><p>Obi-Wan dropped his hands to his lap. He supposed that was good. His friend must have traveled a long way, and he didn’t need to disturb his sleep.</p><p>Obi-Wan rubbed at his face again. He looked around his room once more, realized how thirsty he was. Water—he would get himself some water, try to sleep again.</p><p>Obi-Wan slipped out of the bed, shivering once at the cool floor under his feet. He made his way into the main room, reached for a glass.</p><p>He had just wrapped his hand around the cup when another hand shot out, grabbed his wrist.</p><p>Obi-Wan’s breath caught.</p><p>He spun around.</p><p>Blue-gold-blue-gold eyes—</p><p>“<em>Why did you</em>—”</p><p>--</p><p>Someone was shaking him by the wrist. The shoulder.</p><p>Obi-Wan opened his eyes, found Bail hovering next to him. “Obi-Wan?”</p><p>“Bail,” Obi-Wan managed. He sat up, letting Bail’s hand slip away. “Did I…I woke you.”</p><p>“You did,” Bail replied simply. He sat up too, his hands resting on his lap. He looked tired, and Obi-Wan felt terrible for that. But as though reading his mind, Bail shook his head. “It’s fine. I sleep light these days anyways.”</p><p>“I’m sorry either way,” Obi-Wan replied. He shook his head. “I’ll—”</p><p>“What, leave?” Bail asked, raising an eyebrow. “And sleep where?”</p><p>Obi-Wan tried to smile. “You’d be surprised where I’ve had to sleep before.”</p><p>“I really don’t think I would,” Bail said.</p><p>No, he wouldn’t.</p><p>“Then you’ll have no problem if I—”</p><p>“Obi-Wan.”</p><p>Obi-Wan released a breath. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”</p><p>“I know,” Bail replied. He leaned his head against the wall behind him. “Dreams?”</p><p>When Obi-Wan looked at him—properly looked at him this time, he found Bail giving him a sad, tight smile. “Don’t look so surprised.” A pause. “I get them, too.”</p><p>Bail shifted against the wall. “Not the same kind of things that you would dream about, I’m sure,” he said quietly. “But I know.”</p><p>“What do you see?” Obi-Wan asked. His voice was quiet, even in the already quiet room.</p><p>A slow breath.</p><p>And then, “On the day things changed, I went to the Temple. There was a boy.”</p><p>Obi-Wan’s chest tightened. He hadn’t known.</p><p>“There were some men trying to make me leave,” Bail continued. “And then the boy came. He died.”</p><p>“Bail…”</p><p>“Sometimes he makes it to the speeder,” Bail said. “Sometimes he doesn’t. Most times he doesn’t.” He lifted his shoulders. “Sometimes he’s replaced by someone else. A different child. Sometimes it’s Leia.” At that, Bail’s voice caught.</p><p>And then Bail looked up. “All to say—I understand.”</p><p>Obi-Wan met his friend’s gaze.</p><p>“I see them too,” he said quietly. “And…”</p><p>He considered adding the rest. Blue-gold eyes.</p><p>Obi-Wan didn’t, and Bail didn’t ask.</p><p>“We do the best we can, don’t we?”</p><p>Obi-Wan rested his head against the wall. He looked at the shadows.</p><p>“Yes,” he said. “We do.”</p><p>--</p><p>The next morning, there weren’t any questions asked.</p><p>Bail just looked at Obi-Wan.</p><p>“Just this once,” Obi-Wan said. “And no one can know. <em>No one</em>.”</p><p>Bail nodded.</p><p>--</p><p>The ship was familiar.</p><p>Bail had kept his end of the promise—an instruction was sent for everyone to avoid the main conference rooms. “They’re used to this,” Bail explained as he led Obi-Wan down the empty corridor.</p><p>“And you aren’t worried,” Obi-Wan said.</p><p>“I trust them,” Bail replied simply, and Obi-Wan didn’t question any further. “And you might have to trust them, too.” He cast Obi-Wan a sidelong look. “But I don’t think you’ll have too much trouble there.”</p><p>Obi-Wan frowned. “What do you mean by that?”</p><p>Bail smiled. They came to a stop in front of the conference rooms, and then the door slid open.</p><p>At first, Obi-Wan only saw a long table, a few scattered holoprojectors, commlinks. A few flickering lights.</p><p>“No, Artoo,” a voice was saying. “I don’t need anything.” A chirp, followed by a laugh that was too familiar—more familiar than the ship itself. “I know. Thanks for looking out for me.”</p><p>Another chirp, another laugh that rang around Obi-Wan’s head. He heard that laughter again, this time in his own head: laughter that sounded as a particular young girl ran down the hanger. Twisting around in the training rooms. Kicking accidentally, lightly at his shin from across the table.</p><p>He had thought he would never hear that laugh ever again.</p><p>Obi-Wan walked into the room.</p><p>And then he found Ahsoka hunched over a datapad at the head of the table. She had one hand swiping on the screen, the other resting on the head of what Obi-Wan knew had to be a certain blue and white astromech.</p><p>She was older now—they both were. Her lekkus were a bit longer, and she was a bit taller, even sitting down.</p><p>She lifted her head.</p><p>Obi-Wan saw first bewilderment, then surprise. He didn’t know how he must have looked. But he was sure it must have been similar, because suddenly, his throat felt too tight and his eyes too hot.</p><p>Ahsoka remained at the other end of the room, her eyes wide and lips slightly parted.</p><p>“Hello,” Obi-Wan said. “It’s been a while.”</p><p>Ahsoka stared.</p><p>And then she stood up, walked forward a few steps.</p><p>Obi-Wan did, too.</p><p>He wasn’t sure who reached whom first—but just that they met each other halfway.</p><p>Up this close, Obi-Wan realized that Ahsoka’s eyes were shining.</p><p>“Obi-Wan,” she said. “You…”</p><p>“Me,” Obi-Wan replied. He smiled, and Ahsoka blurred in front of him again.</p><p>Ahsoka blinked a few times. And then, letting out a breath that Obi-Wan had heard himself give so many times, she threw her arms around him.</p><p>Obi-Wan let his chin fall against Ahsoka’s shoulder. He heard a muffled little sob a moment later, and as Obi-Wan hugged her back, he felt something both break and reform in his chest. He squeezed his eyes shut, felt the tears roll down and hit Ahsoka’s shoulder, but she didn’t seem to care. He didn’t care when he felt her own tears, either.</p><p>“I thought you were dead,” Ahsoka whispered. “I really thought…”</p><p>“I survived,” Obi-Wan replied. He lifted his head, looked at Ahsoka. He found that he could actually look at her in the eye instead of looking down. They were the same eyes, Obi-Wan realized. Wide and blue but aged with a grief that Obi-Wan knew must have been reflected in his own. “And you did, too.”</p><p>“I did,” Ahsoka said. “Rex…”</p><p>Obi-Wan’s heart sank. “Did he—”</p><p>Ahsoka shook her head. “He—we figured it out,” she said haltingly. “When things…went bad.”</p><p>When things changed.</p><p>When Obi-Wan had been knocked out of the sky, let himself plummet to the waters below. When he had fled, his chest and head pounding with questions and answers that didn’t make sense.</p><p>“Is he…”</p><p>Ahsoka gave him a sad smile. “We parted ways,” she said. “He’s…I get updates from him every once in a while.” She paused. “And what about you? When…”</p><p>Obi-Wan’s chest tightened again.</p><p>Cody. Another person who haunted his dreams.</p><p>He shook his head.</p><p>Ahsoka’s face saddened. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>“I am, too.”</p><p>They exchanged worn looks, worn smiles.</p><p>And then someone cleared a throat behind them.</p><p>Obi-Wan and Ahsoka looked to where Bail was hovering in the doorway. He looked sorry for interrupting, but Obi-Wan remembered why they were all in this room in the first place. And that was also how he remembered that Bail had said something about someone being with him on this operation…</p><p>“You?” Obi-Wan asked, looking at Ahsoka.</p><p>“She was the one who provided the intel,” Bail said, setting a hand down on the table. He nodded to Ahsoka. “She’s our top spymaster, actually.”</p><p>At Obi-Wan’s look, Ahsoka smiled. For real this time—and Obi-Wan saw a trace of that mischievous young Padawan he had first met on Christophsis. “I had to keep busy somehow,” she said, sitting down at the table.</p><p>“How long?” Obi-Wan asked, sitting down next to her. He looked at Bail. “And how long have you two been working together?”</p><p>Ahsoka looked at Bail. “A few years ago?”</p><p>“Shortly after the Republic fell,” Bail replied. “So a few years ago, yes.” He cleared his throat and looked at Obi-Wan. “You’d be proud. She was waiting in my office. With the lights out.” He looked at Ahsoka. “For hours, apparently.”</p><p>Obi-Wan tried to imagine Ahsoka sitting in Bail’s office. Legs and arms crossed, a smug little expression on her face. He could imagine it—and despite everything, he let out a short laugh. “And here I was, thinking that you didn’t prefer dramatics.”</p><p>“You thought wrong,” Ahsoka replied lightly.</p><p>“Clearly,” Obi-Wan said, shaking his head. He looked to Bail. “So then—the intel says that…”</p><p>“The children are being brought to Coruscant, specifically in the Works sector,” Bail said. He activated a holoprojector, pushed it to Obi-Wan. “We believe in this tower.”</p><p>Obi-Wan stared. He found himself looking at a tall, ugly skyscraper. Even the hologram itself was blue, Obi-Wan remembered the burning red skies that pressed down on the Works sector. The tower itself loomed over other working structures—Obi-Wan could practically smell the smog.</p><p>“How did you discover this?” Obi-Wan asked Ahsoka.</p><p>Ahsoka was watching the hologram too, the blue light reflecting oddly in her eyes. “They train children and former Padawans into joining the Dark Side,” she said. She looked at Obi-Wan. “Jedi hunters. Inquisitors is the official title.” She turned back to the hologram with pressed lips. “One of them found me for a short while. And he had been looking for others, too.”</p><p>Ahsoka’s expression hardened as she looked to Obi-Wan again. “So I decided to look for them instead.”</p><p>“And you found them,” Obi-Wan murmured, looking at the hologram. “Here. How did you not get caught?”</p><p>“Distance,” Ahsoka replied. “And they’re not the brightest. And whoever their master is, well. They’re more aggressive than they are skilled.” Her hands lowered themselves down to her lightsaber hilts, and Obi-Wan realized with a start that they were new.</p><p>“The tower is heavily guarded,” Bail said, rotating the hologram. “But there’s a weak spot here.” He pointed to a single spot in the tower.</p><p>“The garbage chute,” Obi-Wan said. “Well, I can’t say that I’m surprised.”</p><p>“It might be the <em>least </em>toxic place in the whole tower,” Ahsoka muttered.</p><p>Both Obi-Wan and Bail murmured agreements as the hologram was rotated again. “It’ll be a long way up, though,” Bail said. He expanded the image. “The children are supposed to be on one of the higher floors.”</p><p>Obi-Wan looked. “Ah.”</p><p>The higher floor constituted as the third to the top.</p><p>“We think the top floors are probably for the people overseeing this whole operation,” Ahsoka said. “I didn’t get the chance to go in specifically—just watch.” She cleared her throat and expanded the image further. “Bail has someone who can interfere with the security cameras for a short while. So once we get in, we’ll have—”</p><p>“Five minutes,” Bail said with a grimace.</p><p>“We’ve worked under shorter time,” Obi-Wan reassured, but still, something in him went cold. Five minutes to calm down a group of most likely terrified children. <em>And </em>get them out.</p><p>“And how will we get out?” Obi-Wan asked, looking at Ahsoka. “I doubt we can guide children back down a garbage chute.”</p><p>“No,” Ahsoka replied. She tapped the hologram, and there, Obi-Wan saw a small landing platform. “But there’s a ship that leaves at the same time every day, meant to transport other Inquisitors to…wherever they’re going on their next hunt.”</p><p>“Steal the ship,” Obi-Wan nodded.</p><p>“We’ll go unnoticed for a short while,” Ahsoka said, setting her hand down on the table. “By the time the Inquisitors figure out that one of their ships is missing, we’ll already be out of the atmosphere.”</p><p>Obi-Wan nodded. Then, he asked, “And how are we to reach Coruscant in the first place? I suspect things are monitored.”</p><p>“That would be where Bail comes in,” Ahsoka said, nodding to the senator. At Obi-Wan’s questioning look, Ahsoka added, “He’s been the one who’s brought me in and out whenever he returns to the Senate.”</p><p>“She hides in the cargo hold,” Bail explained. “And like I said—I trust my people. They look the other way when Ahsoka comes in, and they’ll look the other way when you arrive, too.”</p><p>Obi-Wan looked at Ahsoka and Bail. For a short while, no one said anything.</p><p>“This is dangerous,” he said at last. “And the chances—”</p><p>“Are slim, I know,” Ahsoka said. She slid her hand off the table and turned herself completely to Obi-Wan. Her eyes were trained on Obi-Wan. She was quiet, and then she said quietly, “I didn’t know that it was <em>you </em>who Bail was referring to when he said that there was someone who might be able to help us.”</p><p>Obi-Wan looked at Bail, who was busying himself with the hologram. He stood up, gave Obi-Wan and Ahsoka a meaningful look before slipping out of the room. The door closed softly behind him.</p><p>“I don’t know why you’re…” Ahsoka’s voice drifted. “Away. And you might have your reasons.” She stopped, and she gave Obi-Wan a sad look that suddenly reminded him of a different conversation. A different time, when the look on Ahsoka’s face was harder and her tone sharper. Obi-Wan’s, too. He didn’t know what he looked like now, but he knew he must have been reflecting the same expression on Ahsoka’s face, because she smiled.</p><p>“I’m just glad that I know,” Ahsoka said after a while. “That you’re alive.”</p><p>Obi-Wan became aware of just how Ahsoka was looking at him then. The sad, wide eyes carefully trained on him as though he would disappear. Or as though this would be the last time they would see each other. With a start, Obi-Wan realized that could very well be the case.</p><p>“And I am as well,” Obi-Wan replied. He looked at Ahsoka and wondered if the girl—no, not girl. A young woman now—could tell just how much he was also trying to memorize the way she was now. Back straight, eyes clear, chin lifted with that same bit of defiance that had carried her through battlefields and meeting rooms and a trial that should have never been.</p><p>“Which is why I will have to help you,” Obi-Wan heard himself say, even though he knew—Force help him, he <em>knew </em>that the situation was dangerous. Too dangerous.</p><p>And yet—</p><p>Ahsoka nodded. She blinked a few times. “Okay.”</p><p><em>Okay</em>.</p><p>--</p><p>“We’ll be heading out tomorrow morning with Bail,” Ahsoka said. She opened the door, and Obi-Wan found themselves in a small guest room. “Might as well get some rest beforehand.”</p><p>Obi-Wan nodded. “Thank you,” he said.</p><p>Neither of them moved.</p><p>--</p><p>“Can I stay?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>--</p><p>“I have to ask…” Ahsoka’s voice was quiet. “Did Anakin…”</p><p>Obi-Wan saw blue-gold eyes.</p><p>He shook his head. It was all he could do.</p><p>Ahsoka’s face crumpled. “Oh,” she said in a small voice. “I thought that maybe…he would have…but I couldn’t—feel—”</p><p>When Ahsoka started crying, Obi-Wan let her lean against him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and looked up at the ceiling and tried not to join her.</p><p>--</p><p>That night, when Obi-Wan slept, the faces were replaced by Ahsoka’s. Blue-golden eyes unblinkingly watched on as Obi-Wan tried to gather a body that shouldn’t have been so still.</p><p>Obi-Wan shouted until his throat was raw and ragged, but there was no response. Just those cold-burning-cold-burning eyes, and when Obi-Wan woke, he thought he could still feel the weight of that gaze.</p><p>He looked over to Ahsoka. She was still asleep, curled up on her side so her back was to Obi-Wan. Still breathing. No blaster or lightsaber burns.</p><p>Obi-Wan closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.</p><p>--</p><p>The last time Obi-Wan had been at Coruscant, he had watched smoke plume from the Temple. But people had been going about their day as they normally would—speeders still entered the lines of traffic, and people still bustled around the streets, completely oblivious to the fact that there were hundreds of thousands of lives being twisted with just seconds’ worth of words.</p><p>Now, as Obi-Wan and Ahsoka slipped out of the back of Bail’s ship and were guided to another cargo load, he could see that things were different.</p><p>White-armored people stood in the corners of the streets, blasters held at the ready. Stormtroopers. Obi-Wan had seen them a handful of times on Tatooine, had always ducked out of the way to avoid them before not bothering to visit the towns at all.</p><p>Men and women in stiff grey suits walked on the sidewalk, their hands clasped tightly behind themselves. Obi-Wan saw a few civilians ducking their heads, not quite making eye contact with either suited figures.</p><p>“Come on,” Ahsoka whispered.</p><p>Obi-Wan followed Ahsoka into the cargo hold, and they were pressed into darkness once more.</p><p>The ship rumbled forward, and only the occasional glimmer of light from the outside shone down on them. Ahsoka sat across from him, and though it was still dark, Obi-Wan could just barely make out her crouched position.</p><p>“Most people are still trying to pretend that things are fine here,” Ahsoka said after some time. “But there’s less people here.”</p><p>“I noticed,” Obi-Wan murmured. Where there had once been such crowded streets, he could have only seen a few handfuls of civilians.</p><p>“I think most people ran,” Ahsoka said. “Didn’t want to get caught up in whatever the Empire was stirring up here.” A breath. “I tried to look for some people when I first came—some old friends.”</p><p>Obi-Wan turned Ahsoka’s way. “And?”</p><p>“And,” Ahsoka said, “their businesses were boarded up.” Her voice was sad, but just slightly tinged with hopefulness. “I’m guessing that they just flew away somewhere. One of them was…a pilot. In training.” After another moment, she added, “I’m sure they’re fine. They’re made of tough stuff. And they have each other.” Her voice dipped at the end.</p><p>The ship rumbled forward.</p><p>“I am sorry,” Obi-Wan said. His voice carried above the groan of the ship. “That you were alone.”</p><p>A shuffle against the other side of the ship told Obi-Wan that Ahsoka was moving. “I’m not completely alone,” she said. “Not for the last few years, at least. But what about you?”</p><p>Obi-Wan was suddenly glad that he couldn’t see Ahsoka’s face. He was glad that she couldn’t see his face either.</p><p>But before he could say something—or think to say something, the ship came to a sudden stop.</p><p>A few knocks against the ship walls told Obi-Wan and Ahsoka that they were here. Someone outside was saying something about supplies, while another complained about collecting trash.</p><p>The back doors suddenly opened, and a woman in a garbage disposal uniform jerked her head. <em>Your turn</em>.</p><p>Obi-Wan nodded once, slipped out of the ship. He smelled and felt the sting of the smog around him—things had gotten worse in the Work sector since the last time he had been on Coruscant. Ten years’ worth of worse. The once-steady thrum of machinery was now a jarring grinding, groaning sound that pressed in from all sides. When Obi-Wan looked up, he still found the occasional jolt of lightning run through the machinery—but even that had turned something sinister, burning red and white enough to burn Obi-Wan’s eyes.</p><p>He looked at Ahsoka, who just shook her head.</p><p>They both looked away from the machinery and stepped lightly towards the garbage chute. As the hologram had shown, the garbage chute was little more than a long, just barely wide-enough cylinder for perhaps one person.</p><p>Then again, Obi-Wan supposed, garbage chutes weren’t made for people to climb up and down.</p><p>“I’ll go,” Obi-Wan said. “You follow.”</p><p>“What happened to ladies first?” Ahsoka asked.</p><p>Obi-Wan managed a smile. “Not this time, I’m afraid.”</p><p>Ahsoka shook her head, but they didn’t have any more time to argue. Obi-Wan jumped up to the chute. The smell, as he had feared, was just barely worse than the smell outside. But he climbed up, feeling along the slightest protrusions on the sides of the garbage chute as support. He tried to ignore the strange wet substance that his hand brushed against as he hoisted himself upward.</p><p>“Hanging in there?” Obi-Wan asked, glancing down at Ahsoka.</p><p>Ahsoka looked back up at Obi-Wan, the faintest trace of amusement shining in the reflection of the walls around them. “Doing just fine,” she replied. “Yourself?”</p><p>“Couldn’t be better,” Obi-Wan said. He heard Ahsoka’s huff of laughter as they climbed up.</p><p>As they inched upwards, the temperature grew cooler. Obi-Wan had suspected as much, but still, he was surprised when he found that he was shivering. He looked back down at Ahsoka, whose expression had shifted from being exasperated and mildly amused to uneasy.</p><p>“You feel it too,” Obi-Wan said.</p><p>“Yes,” Ahsoka replied. “We must be getting close.”</p><p>Obi-Wan nodded once. He continued reaching, climbing. As he climbed higher, the temperatures seemed to drop. Once or twice, Obi-Wan thought he heard something echo around the walls, but when he looked down, it was only Ahsoka, still climbing up after him.</p><p>Obi-Wan forced himself to focus upwards, forwards.</p><p>And as he went along, he began to sense something else, even amid the cold. Something lighter, both in weight and strength. Something nervously fluttering around the fringes of his senses. Something trapped.</p><p>The children.</p><p>Obi-Wan tightened his grip as he climbed up.</p><p>And slowly, steadily, that fluttering feeling tugged harder around his senses. He heard Ahsoka’s sharp inhale below him.</p><p>“They can hear us,” Ahsoka whispered.</p><p>Obi-Wan paused. He looked down. “Who?”</p><p>“The children,” Ahsoka replied. She looked up at Obi-Wan. “They’re scared. I don’t think…I think <em>they </em>think that we’re the others. The ones who brought them here.”</p><p>“How do you…” But Obi-Wan realized that was a silly question. Ahsoka had long since surprised him with her strange perception of things. A story floated back to him—something Plo Koon (<em>ah</em>) had told him once. If he was remembering correctly, it had been Ahsoka’s uncanny perception of those around her that had saved herself from being kidnapped by imposters.</p><p>“It’ll be difficult to calm them down,” Ahsoka said. “And get them out.”</p><p>Obi-Wan’s heart sank. Given their time constraint…</p><p>He looked back up the chute. He could have sworn that he actually heard the anxious pacing of multiple pairs of feet.</p><p>Obi-Wan dropped his head down. Reached for that fluttering that was still crowding his head. A cold sensation swept over him—cold, familiar fear, anxiety. Obi-Wan greeted it like an old friend.</p><p>“Quiet,” he murmured—and he reached back.</p><p>Warmth—as much warmth as he could muster in his own coldness. He extended that warmth, brought with it any reassurance he could. <em>We’re not going to hurt you</em>.</p><p>Somewhere, Obi-Wan felt a different kind of warmth rush past him. Not his own.</p><p>The cold ebbed and flowed, tugged harder at Obi-Wan. He tugged back. Felt a presence somewhere near him help him tug along.</p><p>And then, Ahsoka: “I think we can go up now.”</p><p>Obi-Wan opened his eyes. When he looked down, Ahsoka’s eyes were brighter.</p><p>He nodded and pushed himself up.</p><p>--</p><p>The reassurance had worked: when Obi-Wan and Ahsoka tumbled out of the garbage chute, the children didn’t skitter away.</p><p>“Ashla!”</p><p>
  <em>Ashla? </em>
</p><p>Obi-Wan turned to see Ahsoka’s face break into a relieved grin. “Hedala,” she said, opening her arms just in time to catch a black-haired girl.</p><p>“You found me!” the girl—Hedala—said, looking proudly up at Ahsoka. And then she looked at the other children, who, Obi-Wan realized, were varying ages. Some couldn’t have been older than three, others probably as old as the girl in Ahsoka’s arms. Thirteen, fourteen, if Obi-Wan were to guess. They were all dressed in the same uniform, their eyes wide. Obi-Wan spotted bruising on some of them. “I told you she’d come!”</p><p>A few murmurs—some of them nervous, but the children all regarded Obi-Wan and Ahsoka with more curiosity than anything else.</p><p>“Yeah,” Ahsoka replied, patting Hedala’s head. “We’re getting you out. We’ve only got a little time, though, so you guys have to be <em>really </em>quick and <em>really </em>quiet, okay?”</p><p>Hesitation, and then a few nods.</p><p>But just as they started to move for the doors, Hedala suddenly said, “Wait—there’s someone else.”</p><p>Ahsoka and Obi-Wan both stopped. They looked at each other before Obi-Wan asked, “Who?”</p><p>There were some more murmurs amongst the children, and then one child—a young Mirialan boy—said, “We don’t actually know her name. But one of the…bad people got her. She hasn’t come back.” He looked at the other children anxiously. “They <em>usually </em>come back.”</p><p>Obi-Wan looked at Ahsoka again. Another child…they hadn’t calculated the risks that there might be some children who had been rotated around.  </p><p>One child—just one child out of many.</p><p>They didn’t even know where the child could be, and the minutes were being counted down.</p><p>“She could be held in one of the lower chambers,” Ahsoka said in a low voice. “Just below us.”</p><p>Obi-Wan’s chest tightened. He looked at the children again, all of them waiting expectantly.</p><p>They didn’t have time—how many minutes had passed? Two? Three?</p><p>“I’ve handled some of them before,” Ahsoka said, resting her hands on her lightsaber hilts. “They’re really not much to deal with.” Before Obi-Wan could say anything, Ahsoka was already opening the doors. “Obi-Wan—you’ll lead the children to the ship, and I’ll get the kid.”</p><p>“Ahsoka—”</p><p>“Listen,” Ahsoka said, looking at Obi-Wan, “people can’t know that <em>you’re </em>alive. <em>Especially </em>you, even though…” She paused, her eyes flicking across Obi-Wan’s face with such intensity that he felt like looking away. But he didn’t. “Even though I don’t know why.”</p><p>“But as for me…” Ahsoka shrugged. “I’ve already made our friends downstairs angry before. I don’t mind doing it again. Just hold the ship for another minute if you can. If you can’t—”</p><p>“I will,” Obi-Wan said firmly.</p><p>Ahsoka nodded tightly. And then she was running down the hallway, exiting through another set of doors that Obi-Wan guessed would lead her downstairs.</p><p>With that, Obi-Wan turned around to the children. “Come along,” he said. “Quickly now.”</p><p>The children didn’t waste any time. They hurried after Obi-Wan down the hallway, their steps light and unfaltering. Obi-Wan could sense their worry, but there was also a determined edge to all of them—they were getting out, they had decided. Obi-Wan suddenly felt another pain in his chest—and he wondered if any of the children knew that there might have been a time when that determined strength of theirs would have been celebrated.</p><p>Suddenly, the hallway went red—and Obi-Wan had a second to tell the children to cover their ears before a loud, blaring alarm split the air.</p><p>The timer had gone up. People knew that the younglings had escaped.</p><p>“Hurry,” Obi-Wan said over the alarm. “<em>Hurry</em>.”</p><p>The children rushed forward, and they ran down the rest of the hallway.</p><p>Luckily, they didn’t have that much farther to go. Obi-Wan kept his head ducked, wary of the security cameras—wondered briefly if that was any use, and then wondered if there would have been any use in Ahsoka being the one to go down to rescue the child if she had been worried about him being found out.</p><p>No—she would come back.</p><p>Obi-Wan opened the doors. The acrid smell of the smog rushed up to greet him, and he heard the children gag at the sudden stench. But besides that…</p><p>There were suddenly rapid footsteps, and then one of the children said, “I think they know we’re here.”</p><p>Obi-Wan whipped around. He had expected those white-armored soldiers or perhaps those that Ahsoka had called <em>Inquisitors</em>—but instead, he stopped to find…more children.</p><p>Older children, probably closer to adulthood than anything else, but their faces said enough. They were young.</p><p>And angry.</p><p>Darkened eyes, hands gripping lightsaber hilts.</p><p>Obi-Wan could have sworn he recognized some of those faces. No—that couldn’t be, because when he had gone to the Temple that day (<em>that day</em>), everyone had been dead. All the children. There hadn’t been any survivors—</p><p>Or—</p><p>Obi-Wan slid the door shut just as their pursuers charged forward. He heard angry shouts, and Obi-Wan dragged the children behind him just as the tip of a red lightsaber came charging through.</p><p>“Ship,” Obi-Wan said sharply. “<em>Now</em>.”</p><p>The children didn’t need any further encouragement. They ran down the landing platform, where a ship already waited—just as Ahsoka and Bail had predicted. Obi-Wan walked backwards, watched on as the children scrambled up the ramp.</p><p>“How do you turn this on?” a child was shouting.</p><p>“I got it!” Hedala. “My dad used to run a—”</p><p>Obi-Wan didn’t hear the rest, because the doors suddenly flew open with a shriek and crash of metal on metal. Obi-Wan skittered backwards just as a part of the door very nearly crushed him. He turned around once to see the last of the children boarding the ship.</p><p>“Come on!” a child was shouting.</p><p>Obi-Wan looked back. <em>Wait</em>—</p><p>And suddenly, he heard blaster fire, but above that—lightsabers.</p><p>Ahsoka came barreling down the hallway a moment later. A child was dangling around her neck and shoulders as Ahsoka spun, deflected another shot.</p><p>But she hadn’t anticipated the amount of people waiting for her—and Obi-Wan saw the surprise on her face, and even though he was on the other end of the hallway, he could have sworn he heard her breathe in, breathe out as she took in the amount of…children in front of her. Because they were children to her too.</p><p>But when the first one dove at her, Ahsoka didn’t falter. She swept past, her lightsaber neatly deflecting the strike. A cry split the air—the child was frightened, panicked as red sabers met white. <em>White</em>, Obi-Wan realized dully. She had changed the color.</p><p>Obi-Wan didn’t have much time to notice after that, though, because just as one half of the acolytes—for Obi-Wan decided to call them acolytes now—dove for Ahsoka, the other half dove at him. He heard the cries of the children behind him, and he knew quite suddenly that if he didn’t end this here, now, then this would have all been for nothing.</p><p>“Hedala!” Obi-Wan shouted, igniting his lightsaber. “Do you know how to fly?”</p><p>“Yes!”</p><p>“Then <em>fly!</em>” Obi-Wan kicked back an acolyte, met the red lightsaber of another. Even though his attackers were young, inexperienced, Obi-Wan could feel their darkness practically <em>pulse </em>around him. And there were many of them, so many at once…</p><p>Obi-Wan pushed aside another attacker, refused to look at their face as he blocked their blow.</p><p>“But Ashla—and you—”</p><p>“<em>Fly!</em>” Obi-Wan shouted.</p><p>He heard more shouting from behind him, but then, quite suddenly, quite abruptly, he heard the rush of footsteps. For a disorienting second, Obi-Wan thought that perhaps somehow, the acolytes had gotten past him and were running for the ship—but no, the footsteps were coming <em>down </em>to him, and—</p><p>One of the acolytes went tumbling off the edge of the landing platform.</p><p>Obi-Wan glanced down. That girl—she, and another one of the older children—stood just some paces behind him, their faces screwed tight in concentration.</p><p><em>Oh. You stupid, brave children</em>—</p><p>Obi-Wan didn’t have time to tell them to get back to the ship, because a moment later, Ahsoka came sprinting down to the landing platform, her lightsabers illuminating her whole form in a brightness that Obi-Wan hadn’t seen before. She was vicious, unrelenting, yet controlled. Even as the blaster fire rained down on her, even as the lightsabers came her way—</p><p>“Come on!” Ahsoka shouted, leaping over a fallen acolyte. She tore past the others, her lightsabers still swinging. “I’ve got the kid—<em>go!</em>”</p><p>Obi-Wan didn’t need to be told twice. He turned around, and to his relief, the other children were already running for the ship. Ahsoka was right on their heels, the child around her neck clinging tight for dear life. Obi-Wan was about to take off when suddenly, he was swept up with—</p><p><em>Cold</em>.</p><p>Obi-Wan stopped.</p><p>Why—what—</p><p>Obi-Wan suddenly heard more feet rushing behind him. Too many—and when he spun around, he saw not acolytes and Inquisitors, but instead stormtroopers.</p><p>When they started shooting, Obi-Wan was already prepared. He deflected the blaster fire, reached out to knock down a wave of troopers. There was something both familiar and painful of seeing people—people, not droids, he realized—slam into the wall with a force that Obi-Wan hadn’t used in a long, long while.</p><p>But the blaster fire wasn’t aimed at him anymore, Obi-Wan realized with a start. The ship was already starting to take hits, and—</p><p>“Obi-Wan!” Ahsoka shouted behind him. “We have to go—”</p><p>“We do,” Obi-Wan said, and he risked turning to Ahsoka. “Start flying the ship.”</p><p>“Obi-Wan—”</p><p>“<em>Now</em>,” Obi-Wan said, turning back around to the troopers. “I’ll hold them off just a moment longer—we won’t be able to fly out if there’s this <em>many</em>—” He was suddenly reminded of a different landing platform. A different rush of taking off, then suddenly being shot down. That time hadn’t ended well.</p><p>“But—”</p><p>“<em>Go</em>,” Obi-Wan practically shouted.</p><p>Ahsoka looked at him for a moment, and then she nodded. She ran up the ramp of the ship, and Obi-Wan heard the desperate shuffle of children as the ship started taking off. Obi-Wan heard the scrape of the ramp leave the landing platform, felt the rush of both hot and cold air around him as it rose behind him.</p><p>Obi-Wan knocked down another line of stormtroopers. He could have sworn he heard some familiar voices crying out under the helmets, even though he knew it <em>couldn’t </em>be—<em>they </em>couldn’t be—</p><p>And then Obi-Wan felt cold again, this time stronger, stronger, stronger to the point that he nearly dropped his lightsaber. <em>Where did that—</em></p><p>Something familiar—</p><p>Obi-Wan shook his head. He had taken care of enough stormtroopers. Now, he just had to go.</p><p>He turned around. The ship was just barely hovering away from the landing ramp, slowly getting away—and Obi-Wan knew that in the ship, Ahsoka was holding on for as long as she could.</p><p>Sucking in a breath of smog- and smoke-filled air, Obi-Wan started running for the edge of the landing platform. Children gathered around the top of the ramp, and Obi-Wan wanted to tell them to <em>move</em>, before one of them got shot down, but they were all shouting, cheering—</p><p>Obi-Wan jumped.</p><p>He felt that rush of hot and cold air again, heard the children’s shouts grow louder as he grew nearer—and then he suddenly saw one of the girls’—Hedala’s—eyes widen, and too late, just as Obi-Wan’s fingers just barely brushed against the tip of the ramp, he felt a searing pain at his shoulder. No, not his shoulder, he realized dimly. Back. Somewhere in the back…</p><p>And then he was falling.</p><p>Someone screamed above him. It might have been the children, might have been the wind. He didn’t know.</p><p>Falling, falling, falling, and then—</p><p>Obi-Wan slammed against something.</p><p>For a moment, he couldn’t see. Just feel the blinding pain in his back and shoulders and his head. He heard someone screaming again, but…he wasn’t sure who it was. It might have been the children, might have been the wind, it might have been Ahsoka. Might have been a little boy on Tatooine.</p><p>Obi-Wan opened his eyes. The landing platform was high above him…the ship…Obi-Wan saw the ship still hovering there, and then…he saw blaster fire. Red blaster fire, then smoke.</p><p><em>Go</em>, Obi-Wan thought. <em>Ahsoka. Go. </em></p><p>Obi-Wan’s eyes drifted away from the ship, towards the red sky. A flash of lightning cracked the sky—that same red, white, black that didn’t belong.</p><p><em>I’m coming back for you</em>.</p><p>Ahsoka’s voice rang strong and clear in Obi-Wan’s head, cutting through the pain with a relentless determination that could have only been hers.</p><p><em>Master Kenobi? Obi-Wan? Do you hear me? I’m going to come back for you</em>.</p><p>Obi-Wan found the ship again. It seemed to waver and wobble above him, and he imagined a young girl—no. A young woman now. He had to remember that. He suddenly saw Ahsoka gripping the controls, her face rigid with a knowledge that she did not want.</p><p><em>Go</em>, Obi-Wan thought. <em>I’ll find a way</em>.</p><p>He wasn’t sure about that. He could barely move. But she deserved this one reassurance.</p><p>And then, even though he wasn’t even sure if it would work at all—</p><p><em>Ask our friend where I was</em>.</p><p>Just in case.</p><p>He wasn’t sure if it worked. But he saw the ship fly away, and Obi-Wan watched it take off into the atmosphere.</p><p>And as it did—as it left, Obi-Wan thought he saw someone standing at the edge of the landing platform above him. Someone dark, and at first, Obi-Wan wasn’t sure if he was really looking at anything at all…but then he felt cold again.</p><p>And something else.</p><p>Something so terribly familiar that…</p><p>“No,” Obi-Wan murmured as the figure on the landing platform looked down. “No…it can’t be…”</p><p>Even though his whole body ached, tore as he moved, Obi-Wan managed to prop himself up on an elbow. The world spun around him as he fixed his gaze upwards. The dark figure was descending, he realized. Falling down…</p><p>And then there was the dull <em>thud </em>of boots against metal, and Obi-Wan heard heavy, hollow breathing.</p><p>“No,” Obi-Wan said again. He <em>knew </em>that cold now. Knew that presence…</p><p>Blue-gold eyes.</p><p>The figure walked forward, and Obi-Wan sank back, his head still spinning. He saw only darkness, heard the deep breathing around him, and…the figure in front of him flickered for a moment, and suddenly Obi-Wan was looking at a young man with golden-brown hair, a small smirk, and then it was replaced by that dark figure again, and then it was replaced by that young man, and then it was replaced…</p><p>Obi-Wan closed his eyes.</p><p>--</p><p>This time, Obi-Wan saw someone else.</p><p>A little boy with golden hair and blue eyes, but it wasn’t the boy Obi-Wan was looking over on Tatooine.</p><p>The boy’s eyes were still open. His hands were missing. His legs.</p><p>When he saw Obi-Wan, there was only a small, choked gasp.</p><p>Obi-Wan reached.</p><p>His fingers passed right through.</p><p>No one came for him that night.</p><p>He almost wished someone had.</p><p>--</p><p>Obi-Wan was awake before he opened his eyes.</p><p>He felt pain at his shoulders, his back. White, blinding, hot—and Obi-Wan had the vague feeling that he should be dead. Probably dead. Most likely dead, especially because now Obi-Wan remembered getting shot where someone shouldn’t have been.</p><p>But he was alive. Someone had done enough with the wound to keep him alive, but not enough to get rid of the pain searing through his body.</p><p>“I know you’re awake.”</p><p>Obi-Wan opened his eyes.</p><p>He was stretched out on a table. No, not a table, he realized, as his eyes took in the small droid circling his head. This was a little more drastic than that.</p><p>Obi-Wan’s eyes fell to the figure in front of him.</p><p>The cold came again.</p><p>The person in front of him was wearing a dark mask, one that Obi-Wan could hear the breathing through. Obi-Wan could make out something embedded in the front of his suit, something that he had the feeling was responsible for vitals…his eyes drifted back up to the mask, back to the red that shielded the person’s eyes.</p><p>He had a feeling he knew what he would find behind them.</p><p>He <em>knew</em>.</p><p>And yet—</p><p>Obi-Wan lifted his head, trying to find the right words.</p><p>No, not even the right words—just <em>words</em>.</p><p>Obi-Wan tried to say something, but each time he did—each time he looked at the person in front of him—he found that he couldn’t find any. He coughed once. He tasted blood and something dirtier under that.</p><p>“Too weak,” the figure in front of him said.</p><p>Obi-Wan coughed again, and this time, he actually saw blood stain his tunic. The figure in front of him was unmoving, watching him so steadily that Obi-Wan felt like he was in the presence of a statue more than anything else.</p><p>When Obi-Wan finished, he lifted his head to find that the figure had stepped closer.</p><p>“I know that you and your friend were the one who let the children go free.” Obi-Wan thought he saw movement behind the red of that mask. “Where are they.”</p><p>Obi-Wan simply looked.</p><p>He felt anger—cold, seething, hissing, and then the figure stepped forward again. “<em>Tell </em>me where they are.”</p><p>Obi-Wan dropped his head to the side. He did it more so because he was tired—he was so tired, but he realized that it might have looked more like a careless, uncaring gesture. Which was a lie. All of that was a lie, because every part of him felt like it was breaking and being mended and breaking all over again.</p><p>“If I…” Obi-Wan’s voice grated against his throat, and he coughed again. “If I didn’t reply the first time…” He looked at the figure in front of him. “What makes you think I’ll reply the second time?”</p><p>There was a silence. Obi-Wan felt that anger still seething, still burning cold underneath the surface, and then the figure in front of him turned around.</p><p>Obi-Wan thought that he would leave.</p><p>He wanted him to leave.</p><p>(No, he didn’t. A part of him selfishly, stupidly didn’t want him to leave.)</p><p>When Obi-Wan felt the cold wrap around his throat, he told himself he wasn’t surprised. He shouldn’t have been surprised. He knew this habit, had felt it once before, but that had been different, because at least then, that had been an actual hand wrapped around his throat—not the cold, both there-and-not feeling that clenched around him now.</p><p>Obi-Wan gasped, his head jerking back and slamming against the table as he tried to regain his breath—air, he needed air—</p><p>“What makes you think that was a question?” the figure’s voice was painfully low, deep. The grip around Obi-Wan’s throat tightened, so much that Obi-Wan couldn’t even make a sound. He pulled against his restraints, even though he knew that that wouldn’t do anything. But he tugged anyways, as though he could somehow break free…somehow claw his way out of the invisible chokehold.</p><p>He was dimly aware of the figure moving closer to him, and then, quietly: “I could kill you right now. Where you failed, I could succeed.”</p><p><em>Where you failed</em>.</p><p>Obi-Wan closed his eyes. If he kept them open any longer, he was afraid he’d look again. See who was really behind that mask.</p><p>He <em>had </em>failed—back on that shore, back when he had been walking away, and yet…</p><p>Obi-Wan forced himself to look down at the person before him. He felt that hold over his throat tighten, so impossibly tighten, and then, just when he thought that <em>oh, this was where he died</em>—the chokehold loosened.</p><p>Obi-Wan took in the first lungful of air, choked and coughed enough to feel like he was going to vomit—but nothing came out, just spit and blood.</p><p>And all the while, the person in front of Obi-Wan remained still. Cold.</p><p>“You know what I want,” the person said. “And in the end, you <em>will </em>tell me.”</p><p>Obi-Wan lifted his head. “I’m afraid,” he panted, “you’ll just have to be disappointed.”</p><p>The cold swept over him again, and Obi-Wan let himself be dragged along with it.</p><p>--</p><p>He wasn’t sure if he was actually awake. Or if he was actually asleep.</p><p>But he knew there was pain. Needling under his skin, drilling into his skull, tearing apart the wound at his back. Obi-Wan weaved in and out of consciousness—one moment there’d just be black, and then in another instant, he’d be awake because of a shock or a sting to his chest, head, anywhere, everywhere.</p><p>All the while, the dark circled around him. Waited for him.</p><p>--</p><p>When Obi-Wan awoke again, he found vomit on his tunic. He wasn’t sure how it got there.</p><p>“You won’t find them,” he managed. His voice was little more than a whisper at this point, too raw and too weak from…hours? Days? Of shouting. “Not from me.”</p><p>The figure in front of him stilled. “You underestimate me.”</p><p>“No,” Obi-Wan murmured, dropping his head. “You can…do whatever you like with me, I’m sure. But you won’t learn anything.” He lifted his head, even though it killed him. “I swear it.”</p><p>Silence. The droid hovering near Obi-Wan’s ear seemed to buzz closer.</p><p>“A dangerous promise,” the figure in front of him said. “You will be proven wrong.”</p><p>“I’m afraid you won’t.”</p><p>Obi-Wan felt the cold building around him, and he was prepared for another pain—more pain—when the door suddenly slid open.</p><p>There was a sharp hiss—not from the door, but from the figure before him, Obi-Wan realized, and the stormtrooper in the doorway was suddenly hovering in the air, clawing at their throat.</p><p>“I told you,” the figure in front of Obi-Wan hissed, “not to interrupt me.”</p><p>“It’s—” the stormtrooper gagged. A young man, from the sound of it. Younger than Obi-Wan had imagined. “It’s—Lord Sidious, sir—please—”</p><p>Obi-Wan watched the stormtrooper’s feet kick helplessly in the air. And despite the fact he had been shot at, he still felt…and then he suddenly remembered seeing a blue-eyed young man laughing amongst a group of soldiers. Friends. A man with a blue helmet holding onto someone’s shoulder as he tried not to laugh harder.</p><p>“Let him go,” Obi-Wan said quietly.</p><p>The stormtrooper flailed in the air. The gasping, choking sounds grew more frantic, more desperate.</p><p>“Let him—”</p><p>There was a sharp <em>crack</em>, and then the stormtrooper stopped kicking.</p><p>Obi-Wan closed his eyes as the body dropped to the ground.</p><p>He heard the figure walk away. Heavy, sure steps—but the door didn’t close.</p><p>When Obi-Wan opened his eyes, the stormtrooper’s helmet had been knocked off.</p><p>Obi-Wan found himself staring down at a young boy’s still-open eyes.</p><p>The torture droid deactivated.</p><p>Obi-Wan knew why.</p><p>He leaned his head back, forced himself to look away.</p><p>He found a corner of the room—red light blinked at him. He was being recorded. Watched. Of course he was.</p><p>Obi-Wan turned his head back forward. Looked at the boy for a long time.</p><p>--</p><p>Two other stormtroopers came to drag the body away eventually. They just muttered to each other, their words incoherent to Obi-Wan’s hearing. Or maybe that was just because his head was ringing too much now.</p><p>The stormtroopers looked at Obi-Wan once before closing the door.</p><p>Obi-Wan closed his eyes, tried to focus on his breathing, but just the sheer amount of concentration that required seemed to make him even dizzier. So he reopened his eyes, took to staring at the door.</p><p>He wondered if the person might come back.</p><p><em>Person</em>—so vague. So wrong.</p><p>That wasn’t even the right term to describe the one who came in and out of the room.</p><p><em>Rise, Lord Vader</em>.</p><p>Vader. Yes, that was his name now.</p><p>“Vader,” Obi-Wan whispered, sounding out the name. Cringing at the taste of it in his mouth. Hating the hoarseness of his own voice. Not right, not right. But it made things easier. To match this name with the person who he had met on the landing platform.</p><p>And yet—</p><p>Obi-Wan closed his eyes.</p><p>Even though he was aware of the cameras still watching him, Obi-Wan started: “An—”</p><p>His voice cracked.</p><p>Obi-Wan inhaled sharply, re-opened his eyes. The weight in his chest suddenly felt too heavy, and that was when everything else came rushing in.</p><p>Anakin Skywalker was still alive.</p><p>No, not Anakin Skywalker.</p><p>(<em>Yes</em>, that was Anakin Skywalker. Anakin Skywalker was still alive.)</p><p>(No, Anakin Skywalker died on Mustafar.)</p><p>(Anakin Skywalker was trapped in that suit.)</p><p>(Anakin Skywalker burned.)</p><p>(Anakin Skywalker killed that boy.)</p><p>(Anakin Skywalker killed those children.)</p><p>(And then you killed him.)</p><p>(And then you didn’t kill him.)</p><p>(Anakin Skywalker was dead.)</p><p>(Anakin Skywalker was alive.)</p><p>(That wasn’t Anakin Skywalker.)</p><p>Obi-Wan breathed in again. He blinked, thudded his head against the surface again, even though it sent another flash of pain through his skull.</p><p>He decided that he deserved it.</p><p>--</p><p>Obi-Wan wasn’t in the interrogation room anymore.</p><p>At least, he didn’t think so, because here, he wasn’t restrained. And there weren’t any cameras, and there weren’t any torture droids.</p><p>At first, he didn’t even know where he was.</p><p>But then he heard static—hologram static—and then low voices.</p><p>Obi-Wan looked.</p><p>He saw the person on his knees, helmeted head bowed.</p><p>“He will break,” the person said. “I will make sure of it.”</p><p>“Do not fail me,” the voice from the hologram said.</p><p>Obi-Wan looked. He saw a cloaked figure. A cloaked face, but he knew that voice.</p><p>Something in him turned cold, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was in the presence of two Dark Siders.</p><p>“As for the children?” Lord Sidious asked.</p><p>“We will find them.”</p><p>“Make sure you do,” Lord Sidious replied. “Those children were difficult to procure.”</p><p>“Yes, my Lord.”</p><p>Obi-Wan watched the hologram slowly fizz out, and then he saw the figure before him start to rise. Obi-Wan found that he couldn’t leave, not even as the figure before him straightened and stood.</p><p>The figure looked to Obi-Wan.</p><p>They were both still.</p><p>And then, in a low, angry voice, the figure said, “<em>Get out</em>.”</p><p>--</p><p>Obi-Wan blinked open his eyes to bright light, fierce and harsh and blinding.</p><p>He heard a buzzing somewhere near his ear, and at first, he thought that the torture droid had somehow reactivated and was getting ready for the next round of interrogation but no, he realized that that was just his head.</p><p>He was thirsty, he realized. Thirsty and tired, despite apparently being asleep.</p><p>Obi-Wan shifted against the table, let out a small gasp at the pain that shot up from his back. Judging by the heat and the stiff, swollen feeling around his shoulders and upper back, he could just guess that…<em>something </em>had been infected.</p><p>Obi-Wan swallowed, dropping his head forward so that he wouldn’t be looking into the light. He focused on one breath, another. They came out unevenly, burning out of his mouth. He felt the restraints pull tight against him as he leaned forward. They dug write into his wrists, and Obi-Wan had to open his eyes again because even that slight dig made him flinch.</p><p>Obi-Wan found himself looking at the door. If he could just…find a way—</p><p>He tried to think about where he must be. He must…still be at the tower. Judging by the hallway he had seen, at least, he guessed that he was still at the tower. But was he on the lower floors? The higher floors? And…</p><p>A sharp needle of pain kept Obi-Wan from thinking any further.</p><p>He dipped his head back, swallowed down the bile threatening to climb up his throat. Out of the corner of his eye, he made out the red flickering camera. Still watching him, still making sure that he wouldn’t try anything.</p><p>If he were to try anything…</p><p>Obi-Wan looked at the door again. If he could somehow find a way to unlock the door…he didn’t know where his lightsaber was, but he imagined that person had taken it somehow. He didn’t want to think about what had become of it.</p><p>But if he could somehow unlock the door…if this area was anything like the others—which was a <em>long </em>shot, he knew—then he could find another ship, and then…fly. If he could fly. If the rest of himself was cooperating with him long enough to fly.</p><p>He could barely shift against the table without feeling pain—he wasn’t sure how he was going to be able to run down a hallway and climb and then fly a ship.</p><p>Fly a ship…and then somehow leave Coruscant’s atmosphere in one piece. And then he’d have to get to Tatooine.</p><p><em>Tatooine</em>…</p><p>Obi-Wan’s head ached with something that had nothing to do with his actual wounds. If something had happened on Tatooine while he was gone—if right now, there was a young boy with—</p><p><em>No</em>, Obi-Wan wouldn’t think about that, and not just to keep his mind steady. He didn’t trust this place. He didn’t trust anything about this place, with its coldness and the sweeping darkness around him. He would take the ship. Leave. Hope for the best.</p><p>A wonderful plan, he assured himself. One that only required…three steps. (Get out of the cell. Get a ship. Leave and never come back.)</p><p>The sound of the door hissing open brought Obi-Wan out of his thoughts. He lifted his head, found that it was once again that person clad in the darkness.</p><p>“Come again?” Obi-Wan murmured.</p><p>The figure before him didn’t reply. He swept into the room, the door sliding shut behind him.</p><p>For a moment, they were both silent. Obi-Wan heard that horrible, horrible deep breathing, one that seemed to block out the sounds of Obi-Wan’s own lighter, rapid breaths.</p><p>“We have the names of the people who brought you here,” the figure in front of him said. Obi-Wan’s stomach twisted as the person brought out a small holoprojector. He saw the faces of the man and woman who had driven Ahsoka and himself to the Work sector. Even from the holoprojector, Obi-Wan could make out the bruises and burns that ran down from jaw to shoulder. The gauntness of their cheeks, the wear of their clothes. Obi-Wan didn’t know how long they had been in the tower. How long they had <em>all </em>been in the tower.</p><p>“They didn’t know,” Obi-Wan said. “They know nothing.”</p><p>“So they claim,” the figure in front of him said. “So they lie, as you do now.”</p><p>“They’re innocent,” Obi-Wan replied, but he knew that was no use. Innocence and guilt—what did that matter to someone who couldn’t tell the difference himself? “They won’t be of any help to you.”</p><p>“No,” the figure mused. “That is where you are wrong.”</p><p>He pressed down on the side of the holoprojector, and Obi-Wan watched as fierce, harsh lightning overtook the prisoners’ bodies. He heard their screams—desperate, pitching higher and higher as the intensity grew.</p><p>Obi-Wan could almost smell their skin, their hair burning.</p><p>“Stop,” Obi-Wan said. “<em>Stop</em>—”</p><p>“You can stop this,” the figure in front of him said. “If you tell me where the children went. If you tell me where the others are.”</p><p>Obi-Wan stared at the writhing bodies on the holoprojector.</p><p>He looked at them hard and long, forced himself to keep watching them. Remember their faces.</p><p>“No,” he replied.</p><p>The prisoners’ screaming grew louder, louder. Hoarser.</p><p>Obi-Wan thought he saw their skulls briefly light up—and then the lightning suddenly stopped, leaving the prisoners panting.</p><p>“I ask you again,” the figure in front of him said. “Where are they.”</p><p>Obi-Wan forced himself to look into the mask. “You’re under pressure, aren’t you?” he asked. “Someone’s counting on you to find the children quickly.” He licked his cracked lips, steadied himself even against the restraints as he added, “You’re afraid what your master will do if you displease him.”</p><p>“I am afraid of no one,” the figure said coldly. “It is <em>you </em>who is afraid.”</p><p>“Am I?” Obi-Wan asked quietly.</p><p>And then suddenly, almost too quickly for him to process, Obi-Wan felt icy fingers probe at his—no, not his actual head. But <em>in </em>his head, in his mind, trying to grasp at whatever images, whatever thoughts—</p><p>Obi-Wan slammed down his shields. Something he realized he hadn’t done in <em>years</em>, because there had never been another Force-sensitive person around him—never another Force-sensitive person around him who could actively try to look into his mind, try to get past him, but now—</p><p>Obi-Wan stared at the figure in front of him. Dared him to look further, if he could—but the cold suddenly pulled away. There was nothing comforting in it, though. Obi-Wan felt as though someone had just ripped open a window to slam it shut. That was how the cold still lingered in his head, in his bones, in his blood.</p><p>“You are going to die here,” the figure in front of him said. “Not today, but you are going to die here.”</p><p>“I am not afraid of death,” Obi-Wan said.</p><p>“You should be. When it’s at my hand,” the figure in front of him replied. He took a step towards Obi-Wan.</p><p>Obi-Wan focused on the spot behind the figure’s shoulder. He heard himself breathe, heard the figure in front of him breathe.</p><p>“I won’t be,” Obi-Wan said. “Because <em>I</em>…”</p><p>The temperature around him dropped, but Obi-Wan pressed forward. “<em>I </em>have nothing to lose,” he said. Lied. He still had something to lose. Multiple somethings to lose, multiple someones to lose. But he wouldn’t think about them now, not here…</p><p>“And you…” Obi-Wan’s head hurt. He forced himself to focus. “<em>You </em>have an empty tower, a punitive master…” He smiled grimly, ignoring the taste of blood in his mouth. “And once you have the children—what then? Do you expect to have something then?”</p><p>Obi-Wan suddenly remembered the flash of the youthful faces, the strength with which the children had gathered around him. How long it had been since the last time he had seen anything of that determination…how quickly the Empire would swallow them whole if they were ever found out. Something burned in Obi-Wan’s chest now, as hot as the suns he had lived under for the last decade. Burning, bright, melting right through the cold around him.</p><p>“How much time?” Obi-Wan asked, breathing hard. Unevenly. His chest hurt. “How much time were you given to procure the children, <em>Lord Vader?</em>” He found himself looking into the helmet that shielded the figure in front of him. If he looked hard enough, he knew that he would find the golden eyes there. “They were <em>so difficult to procure</em>, after—”</p><p>Cold, invisible fingers wrapped around Obi-Wan’s throat. He tried to suck in some remnant of breath, but nothing came. He let out a small sound—the only thing he could manage as the grip around his throat tightened, tightened, tightened.</p><p>He saw the light above him flicker. Replaced by a hot sun. Not a sun. Just a light.</p><p>“Get <em>out</em>,” a voice said. Low, angry. “Get out of my <em>head</em>. In my head—for <em>years</em>—<em>years</em>—”</p><p>He was going to die, Obi-Wan realized. He was going to die right here, in this small cell, at the hands of <em>someone</em>—at the hands of—</p><p>“<em>Anakin</em>,” Obi-Wan managed.</p><p>He had expected the grip to tighten. He had expected death, in the end.</p><p>But the grip suddenly loosened, and he heard heavy breathing—not just his own rattled, shaking coughs as his lungs fought for air.</p><p>“You killed him.” The voice that spoke now was flat. “No—<em>I </em>killed him.”</p><p>Obi-Wan fought to raise his head.</p><p>He couldn’t.</p><p>The door opened, then closed, and Obi-Wan was left alone.</p><p>He didn’t care if the camera was recording—his chest hurt, his throat hurt, his head hurt, everything hurt, and—</p><p>Obi-Wan let out a choked little sound, heard it echo around and around the small cell.</p><p>--</p><p>This time, Obi-Wan was running down a rocky shore.</p><p>He had left something behind—left someone behind, and he needed to go back—</p><p>He found a still-burning body.</p><p>He reached.</p><p><em>Anakin</em>, he said. <em>Anakin</em>—</p><p>He reached again, but just as he could have wrapped his hand around the still-burning one, he fell through the shore. Fell through the rocks, the ash, the flames, and then—</p><p>A young boy waited in front of him. Yellow hair, blue eyes.</p><p><em>Luke, go back home</em>.</p><p>The boy looked at Obi-Wan.</p><p>
  <em>I’m sorry, Luke. </em>
</p><p>The boy just shook his head.</p><p>“Come back, Ben.” The boy reached out his hand, and Obi-Wan took it.</p><p>He followed the boy away from the burning shores and the flames. They walked into the darkness, and when Obi-Wan looked again, he found that he was holding hands not with a boy, but with a girl with brown hair, brown eyes.</p><p>They walked further down, and when Obi-Wan looked again, he saw a young woman with blue- and white-striped lekks, a small smile.</p><p>“I’m sorry I lied,” Obi-Wan said.</p><p>“It’s okay,” the woman replied. “I know I’ll find out sooner or later.”</p><p>Then she was gone, replaced by—</p><p>“You’re going to wake soon,” this woman said. Warm dark eyes, even darker curls that fell down to her waist. They stopped at the edge of the darkness.</p><p>Another tug at Obi-Wan’s hand, and he turned to see a young man with golden-brown hair.</p><p>“Come on,” he said. “You gotta get out of here.”</p><p>They walked together into the light, and then, suddenly, they were standing in a small room. An empty room.</p><p>Obi-Wan saw a helmet. A dark helmet, red transparisteel to protect the eyes. He faltered.</p><p>And then the man at his side walked across the room, came back with a lightsaber.</p><p>“Get out of here,” the man said, setting the lightsaber in Obi-Wan’s hand. “Okay?”</p><p>Obi-Wan’s eyes stung. “I wish things were different,” he said.</p><p>The man smiled sadly. “I do too.”</p><p>--</p><p>Obi-Wan’s eyes still stung when he woke. His hand was still warm, and his chest was still heavy with the words both said and unsaid of the ghosts flitting through his dreams.</p><p>And yet…</p><p>Obi-Wan looked down at his hand.</p><p>His lightsaber.</p><p>Obi-Wan looked up at the camera to the side. It still blinked red.</p><p>
  <em>Get out of here. </em>
</p><p>Obi-Wan nodded to himself and, before he could lose his nerve, he ignited his lightsaber.</p><p>--</p><p>When the first shots came his way, Obi-Wan was prepared.</p><p>He deflected the blaster fire, ignoring the scream in his back, his shoulder. Two people went down, another two as he stumbled down the hallway. He couldn’t tell where the hallway began or ended, just that he needed to find some way out…some way off this tower, off this planet that had once been his home.</p><p>Obi-Wan swayed, stumbled down like a drunk as more stormtroopers cluttered the hallway. A single shot came close enough to his face for him to feel the heat. He ducked down, nearly crashing to the floor. But something—reflexes, will—kept him standing. He heard the sudden thud of boots against the ground, the ignition of several lightsabers, and when Obi-Wan turned, he found the acolytes.</p><p>He didn’t remember how many there were—just that suddenly he was blocking the blows of too many sabers at once, pushing one down and toppling over another. Twisting, turning the best he could. He felt a sudden pain in his leg, and he realized he might have been shot, but he didn’t stop. Not as he pushed forward, practically threw himself forward towards the end—this had to be the end—of the hallway.</p><p>He slammed down a fist on the control panel, and a blast of hot, foul-smelling air rushed up to meet him, and he knew that he had guessed correctly.</p><p>Obi-Wan just barely got to the landing platform before slamming his hand back down on the controls. The door slid shut, and Obi-Wan staggered backwards, not bothering to shut off his lightsaber. Not as he searched frantically for some way off—<em>there had to be some way off</em>…</p><p>And there, at the very edge of the platform, a ship.</p><p>The doors suddenly slid open behind him, and Obi-Wan spun around, already bracing himself for blaster fire, but no—</p><p>The figure stood before him, tinted in the red glow of his lightsaber.</p><p>For a moment, the two stood still.</p><p>A wind passed, carrying with it the stench of something burning. Lightning. Fire.</p><p>“When I said your name,” Obi-Wan said, “you reacted.” He shouldn’t be talking. He should be running for the ship, flying away.</p><p>He remembered a sad smile. (<em>Get out of here</em>.)</p><p>“Anakin.”</p><p>A silence.</p><p>And then: “He died.”</p><p>“No.” Obi-Wan swallowed. He saw that sad smile again, blue eyes. “You didn’t.”</p><p>Another wind passed by them.</p><p>“He did.” A flash of light, and then the figure was bringing up his lightsaber. “And so will you.”</p><p>A lunge, and then—Obi-Wan brought up his lightsaber in time to block the incoming strike. He staggered backwards, nearly fell down from the sheer force on the other side. His ears rang with the sounds of their lightsabers clashing together, striking, blocking—</p><p>Obi-Wan let himself be pushed back to the edge of the landing platform. He saw lightning flash below them, saw just how high up they were. If he fell…</p><p>Obi-Wan looked at the figure in front of him.</p><p>He wouldn’t fall.</p><p>Obi-Wan pressed back against the figure in front of him. The fighting style was both the same and not—Obi-Wan recognized the strikes, the feints, the blows coming down on him, and yet, each time, Obi-Wan felt them come down harder, sharper. Brutal, wild. Both precise and not.</p><p>Obi-Wan danced along the edge of the landing platform, his shoulders and his arms growing heavier with each passing second. The figure in front of him, sensing this, pressed on. Pressed forward.</p><p>Obi-Wan felt the heat of their lightsabers as they pushed against each other. He couldn’t remember how long they were fighting for—it could have been seconds, minutes, just by how they dove and lunged at each other.</p><p>Another wind shuddered through the landing platform. <em>Shook </em>the landing platform, and Obi-Wan looked down at the ground once to see where their lightsabers had left deep marks against the durasteel. He knew that it would take more than a few slices to cut through the actual landing platform, but—</p><p>Obi-Wan glanced down once.</p><p>Another landing platform awaited.</p><p>Obi-Wan looked back at the figure in front of him, wondered if the look had been noticed, but no—the figure in front of him was still slashing, still feral, still ruthless.</p><p>Still blind.</p><p>Obi-Wan stepped backwards.</p><p><em>Get out of here</em>.</p><p>And as the figure in front of him started forward, Obi-Wan drove his lightsaber into the ground.</p><p>He heard a surprised shout, blaster fire, but it was too late.</p><p>He plummeted down, down, down, but this time, when he came close enough to the landing platform below, Obi-Wan was ready.</p><p>He cushioned his fall, his knees buckling just once when he hit the ground. He heard shouting above him, but he didn’t bother looking to see the chaos. Obi-Wan looked to the other end of the landing platform, found a ship already waiting there.</p><p>Obi-Wan thought he heard someone shouting his name from above, but he didn’t look. He climbed up the ramp of the ship. Found the controls, started the engine. Ignored the shaking in his hands, his arms as he brought the ship off the landing platform, started to the skies.</p><p>He glanced down once.</p><p>The figure stood at the edge of the landing platform. He blurred.</p><p>Obi-Wan turned away.</p><p>--</p><p>Obi-Wan wasn’t sure how Ahsoka and Bail found him, or how they knew that it was him who was flying out of Coruscant—but he remembered exiting the atmosphere, then seeing another small ship flying towards him. He remembered glancing over to see a familiar face, and then a moment later, the two of them had stopped, just floating against the stars.</p><p>The two didn’t need to actually say anything—they couldn’t say anything, not within their separate ships, but a moment later, Ahsoka had come around to Obi-Wan’s side.</p><p>When Obi-Wan stepped into the ship, Ahsoka was already there.</p><p>“Come on,” she said, her voice shaking. She slung one of his arms over her shoulders, guided him down the ship. “We’re going—we’re going—”</p><p>He heard her saying something desperately to a medical droid, heard the slow, the buzz of lights above him.</p><p>He heard Ahsoka’s breaths beside him, the quick huffs as she kept both Obi-Wan and herself standing as she gave orders. He heard his own breaths—uneven, alarmingly scattered.</p><p>He heard Ahsoka’s sharp cry a moment later, and he didn’t know why until he realized that he was sinking to his knees.</p><p>--</p><p>He didn’t dream.</p><p>He wished he had.</p><p>--</p><p>Obi-Wan drifted in and out of sleep.</p><p>Once or twice, he saw Ahsoka hovering above him, her eyes wider than he had ever seen them. Bail made a few appearances, each time looking older than the last.</p><p>He heard voices—some of them new, others familiar. He wasn’t sure if they were real or not.</p><p>Someone held his hand. Squeezed it once before letting go.</p><p>He heard a laugh at one point. Soft, childish laughter, and then a hushed “no, no, Leia, you can’t come in here—”</p><p>The name meant something to him.</p><p>He felt something hot trickle down from his eye and shifted against the pillow so that no one would see.</p><p>--</p><p>When Obi-Wan woke up for real, Ahsoka was sitting at his bedside.</p><p>She had a blanket thrown over her lap, her head tilted back against the chair. Obi-Wan was content to let her sleep, but then, as though sensing his own waking, she opened her eyes.</p><p>“Obi-Wan,” she said.</p><p>“You look tired,” Obi-Wan commented.</p><p>“And you look…” Ahsoka let out a watery laugh. “You look—”</p><p>“Like I’ve seen better days?”</p><p>“Yeah. <em>Yeah</em>.”</p><p>The two looked at each other for a full moment before Ahsoka shook her head. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.</p><p>Obi-Wan shook his head. “You have nothing to apologize for.”</p><p>Ahsoka bit her lip, shook her head again. “I should have come sooner. I should have—”</p><p>“You should have made sure to see the operation through,” Obi-Wan said. He sat up slowly, wincing at the sudden strain at his back. Ahsoka was suddenly at his side, helping him up. “You did what you had to. And I found a way out, so no real harm done.” He meant for his tone to be light, but judging by Ahsoka’s expression, he had failed miserably.</p><p>“No <em>real harm</em>…you were shot. Three times. In vital areas.”</p><p>“Was I really?”</p><p>“And…the internal damage…you were asleep for <em>days</em>—”</p><p>“I must have rested well.”</p><p>“Don’t do that.” Ahsoka’s expression had turned sad, and Obi-Wan became aware of that slight shake in her voice, her hands. “I thought…that you were <em>gone</em>—”</p><p>She looked at Obi-Wan. “Just—who <em>did </em>that to you? The marks—the bruises—”</p><p>She was looking too hard at Obi-Wan now.</p><p>Obi-Wan looked away.</p><p>“Obi-Wan.” Ahsoka’s voice was quiet. “Back there, when we were—I thought—” She stopped. “I thought I felt—was it—” Her voice was shaking again. “It <em>wasn’t</em>, right? Master Kenobi?”</p><p>Obi-Wan was quiet.</p><p><em>No</em>, he wanted to say. <em>It wasn’t him. </em></p><p>“Obi-Wan.” Ahsoka’s voice was edging on desperation now. “Did I—was that—”</p><p>“Please,” Obi-Wan said tightly. “Ahsoka.” He forced himself to turn to her. Meet her wide-eyed gaze. “Don’t ask me.”</p><p>Ahsoka’s face fell.</p><p>She knew, he realized.</p><p>And perhaps it was because she knew that they didn’t say anything after that.</p><p>--</p><p>“Are you going to leave?” Ahsoka’s voice was quiet.</p><p>Obi-Wan stared up at the ceiling. “Yes.”</p><p>A pause, and then: “Before…”</p><p>“Ahsoka—”</p><p>“No, it’s not—it’s just—” A small breath. “Before, I think I heard…you tell me something. It was strange. You said…something about asking our friend.”</p><p>Another pause.</p><p>“I asked Bail. What you might have meant by that.”</p><p>Obi-Wan kept his eyes trained on the ceiling.</p><p>“I understand.” Ahsoka’s voice was even quieter now. “Why you have to be alone.”</p><p>Obi-Wan’s throat hurt. He turned to look at Ahsoka. She was still in the chair, her legs pulled up to her chest, as though she were a child again.</p><p>“You’ll have to forget about me,” Obi-Wan said softly. “Do you understand? Obi-Wan Kenobi does not exist.”</p><p>Ahsoka smiled sadly. “I know,” she said.</p><p>She reached over, wrapped her arms tightly around Obi-Wan. He didn’t protest, just rested his chin on her shoulder.</p><p>“But you’ll always be Obi-Wan Kenobi to me.”</p><p>--</p><p>“There she is,” Bail said, standing at the viewport. “Tatooine.”</p><p>“Thank you, Bail,” Obi-Wan said. “For lending the ship.”</p><p>“You’re welcome, old friend.” Bail turned to look at Obi-Wan. “You know you can keep it.”</p><p>“I won’t be needing it.”</p><p>Bail nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I was afraid you’d say that.”</p><p>They looked at each other, Bail with a semi-smile that fell apart only a moment later.</p><p>“I’m sorry for all that happened.”</p><p>“I did agree to come.”</p><p>“And you didn’t want to.”</p><p>“No,” Obi-Wan said quietly. “I suppose I didn’t.”</p><p>They watched Tatooine come closer.</p><p>“But I know now,” he said. “That some things…well.”</p><p>He looked at Bail.</p><p>And he told him what he had seen.</p><p>--</p><p>Obi-Wan watched the ship disappear. One moment there—the next, not.</p><p>He imagined Ahsoka and Bail still watching Tatooine from the viewport.</p><p>And then he turned around, walked away.</p><p>He walked for some time before he came across a familiar farm—and there, right outside the house, was a little boy with blond hair and blue eyes.</p><p>Even from this far away, the boy somehow saw him. The boy’s face brightened, and then he was running forward, kicking up sand as he went along.</p><p>“Ben!” the boy came to a stop in front of Obi-Wan. “Where’ve you been?”</p><p>Obi-Wan smiled down at the boy. “Nowhere exciting,” he said.</p><p>The boy grinned. “I don’t believe you.”</p><p>“No?” Obi-Wan asked lightly.</p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>“Well,” Obi-Wan said, looking towards the house. Already, the uncle and aunt were starting to come out. “Perhaps I’ll tell you later.”</p><p>“Not now?”</p><p>“No,” Obi-Wan replied. He settled a hand on the boy’s shoulder, turned him lightly towards his uncle and aunt. “Come now, Luke. It’s time to go home.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>as always, comments/kudos are greatly appreciated! </p><p>come scream with me on <a href="https://katierosefun.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a>!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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